Sacramento Responds to Violence with Peace Walk

Community gathering in Oak Park in response to recent community violence

Sacramento, CA – Members of the Sacramento community, along with local faith-leaders, city councilmembers and Mayor Steinberg will walk for peace tonight in response to recent community violence in Oak Park.

“Oak Park is a strong and resilient community that comes together, especially during times like these, to express with one voice that violence in our streets must stop,” said Sierra Health Foundation President and CEO Chet P. Hewitt, “We are marching tonight with a shared vision that children, youth and families in Oak Park and throughout the City of Sacramento deserve safe and violence-free communities.”

The Peace Walk will begin at 6 p.m. at Shiloh Baptist Church at 3565 9th Ave. in Oak Park. Community members will gather at 5:30 p.m. to create posters. The walk will promote a community response, with a focus on peace in our community. The mayor, city council members and Sacramento City Unified School District Board Member Jessie Ryan, along with community members and faith leaders, will provide a call to action before the walk begins.

“We want Oak Park to thrive and we will take back the streets to make that happen,” said Greater Sacramento Urban League CEO Cassandra Jennings. The Greater Sacramento Urban League is one of seven Black Child Legacy Campaign Community Incubator Lead organizations and serves the Oak Park neighborhood.

“Our children deserve safe spaces and the opportunity to grow up healthy and without trauma,” said Pastor Les Simmons of South Sacramento Christian Center. “This community response is our opportunity to show them that we care and to prove that we can create neighborhoods where they will be safe.”

The Black Child Legacy Campaign is the community-driven movement raising visibility and strengthening collective impact efforts of the Steering Committee on Reduction of African American Child Deaths to reduce the number of black child mortalities by 10% to 20% in 2020 in Sacramento County. Tragically, for 20 years, the Sacramento County Child Death Review Team has consistently found that African American children died at a rate two times higher than children of other races.